Film School 101: Tips and Tricks for Videographers

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Film school isn’t for everyone. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that many of your favorite directors either dropped out or never attended film school to begin with. That isn’t to say that working in film and video does not require a great deal of education. Quite the opposite, filmmaking requires passion, talent and a very detailed knowledge into every aspect of the process.

Whether you’re just starting out, or looking to sharpen your skills, here are some filmmaking basics and videography tips to add to your curriculum.

Framing Up Your Shot

Whether you’re shooting yourself or working with a DP (a Director of Photography), the art of shot framing is an important subject to study up on. While there’s more to it than just putting your subject squarely in the middle of the frame, the overall shot should be framed up to best visually tell the story in relation to the script. It should be the logical progression of the shot before it, as well as lead into the shot that follows.

Lighting Your Shots

Lighting your shots and your scenes is another aspect of filmmaking that requires extensive knowledge into the craft. There are numerous elements to consider like color temperature, light intensity, colors, shadows and composition to name a few. That being said, if you understand the principles well enough, you can often work with minimal set-ups and natural lighting to best paint your scene.

Recording Clear Audio

Probably one of the most overlooked aspects of film and video production is audio. It’s easy to put your focus on cinematography and lighting, but without good audio all of it is for naught. The good news, however, is that with some simple planning recording clear, quality audio is achievable with minimal investment. The tenants of audio revolve around removing noise (or grain) by focusing on proximity and direction.

Here’s a breakdown of the different types of microphones and how to use them for production.

Unlike high school or college, filmmaking is a class that you never really graduate from, instead it takes an endless appetite for new tips, tricks and techniques along with lots of practice. If you’re looking to continue your education online, here are some great resources to check out and follow.

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Jourdan is a writer and video journalist based in Dallas, Texas. Along with his work as a contributing writer for PremiumBeat, he has contributed articles covering film and video news to Vimeo, Shutterstock and No Film School. He also creates short documentary features for the Dallas Observer — a subject which inspired his recently published e-book on the shooting, producing and editing lifestyle called SHREDITOR, which can be purchased on Amazon.